Posted: Thu 17 May 2012, 12:56 Post subject:
How to make taskbars transparent in JWM?

Hey everyone...
I am making this post to ask you how to make the taskbars transparent using jwm on puppy 4.3.1
i want them transparent (to improve style)...
if possible, i would like to make window borders transparent too...
If possible, also change the window buttons...
if someone has any idea how to do that, please post here..._________________asus a6000: intel m 1.6ghz, 2gb ram ddr, no hdd, usb 2.0 pendrive running puppy linux 4.3.1

a) it needs xorg as the X server (just in case p431 has the Xvesa kdrive X server option)

b) then either xcompmgr or kcompmgr with the option added in and enabled in xorg.conf

c) opacity tags in the jwm theme

d) for convenience, a menu item to load x-or-kcompmgr -n (the general parameter) .. unload with htop or similar process manager if it eats up too much processor for your liking (actually jwm is pretty good with this simple compositing)

Window titlebar button masks are possible with some perusal of how Patriot did it - not real sure if the bell is worth the candle for that (I remember making a Q-for-quit and a max variant, but it wasn't high priority for me). Opacity tags are where the juice is - they're good for menu and trays, window opacity went from individually set to a serial-focus stepping effect (how far down in the layers determines just how translucent). This is true translucency, by the way; not mere pseudo-transparency to the rootwindow - menu, trays and windows all share visibility properties when they overlap.

i have the original version of jwm that came on puppy 4.3.1
i don't know which version is exactly...
but i just want to know if it will work or not...
_________________asus a6000: intel m 1.6ghz, 2gb ram ddr, no hdd, usb 2.0 pendrive running puppy linux 4.3.1

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aka your machine (mine's mostly 12 years old) and working methods may differ - so for comparison I loaded up my liveCD+stick of p431

Performance hit - there's some to be expected, the gpu is doing more (why using outline rather than full window draws is a good idea when moving or resizing). 82 processes seems relatively many, even if they are background and you've got plenty of RAM - then again, count methods can vary. An idea to try if you haven't - do a kill party to see what you really need (htop is good for that, just do it on a session you're willing to lose so you can find the must-not-kill vital stuff like i/o and display)

The errors on the 1st screenie console I've no idea what they relate to, the xvkbd window clearly shows translucent effect, pwidgets(conky) seems nominal, roxpin is what it is , tasklist not in tray? (all kinds of ways to do trays, but I'd expect two buttons for the up windows anyhow in a normal jwm tray)

As for the "horrible" opera (search) menu .. even more ways to do opera, so I'm no judge. I'd expect presto to do better with the gui, are geckoes like seamonkey and/or firefox ok? Is there a reload interval for that page on your speedial interfering? Browsers can be complex instruments at times.

There is no reload time.
It usually just make the horrible effect and the gui getts laggy...
but that piece missing just happened once...
it shows transparency quite well, but too slow...
My gpu is a crap (333mhz gpu) and that can make it to be slow_________________asus a6000: intel m 1.6ghz, 2gb ram ddr, no hdd, usb 2.0 pendrive running puppy linux 4.3.1

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